The Blood On Her Hands (FSN) Dark Fic

[Elf]

Elf's Note: This fic is a couple of years old.  It's also one of my darkest pieces of writing and I'm still proud of it.
 
 Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night belong to Type-Moon and its respective companies.  I do not own the properties or the characters contained within.  This story is not written for profit, just entertainment.
 
 WARNING: Dark fic, character death.  Read at your own risk.
 
 Author’s Notes: This is a lot different than what you guys are usually use to reading.  There’s no real romance in this story and tragedy strikes heavily.  The contest this is wrote for is for Shakespearean themes.  Just my favorite Shakespeare works are his tragedies, which I hope this suits that need.
 
 

The Blood On Her Hands
By: Elf

 The Counter Guardian formerly known as Emiya Shirou, currently known as Servant Archer scowled at the white panties he folded and shoved into the suitcase.  He looked around the guest room of his former dwelling with a frown as he continued to pack things.  His shoulders were tense as his Master’s Command ringing in his ears.
 
 “Archer, I want everything packed and back at my house before breakfast is over.”
 
 He’d tried pressing the issue, trying to manipulate her into telling him why she wanted to leave so quickly.  However, those aquamarine eyes simply narrowed as she turned from him, tossing her long, wavy raven hair in the process.  He tried refusing the Command, but she repeated it again and again until he had to obey or be severely weakened, heavy limbed, and lethargic.  So he was currently packing Tohsaka Rin’s things, careful to keep everything in order because the girl seemed to live in disarray when it came to her things.
 
 Not that he minded tending to her.  In fact, it was one of his few pleasures in the repeating loop he’d cursed himself into by trying to change the past.  The price for his sin for trying to commit suicide by murdering his past self because of a Faustian pact he made naively years ago.  Now he was beginning to settle in the routine of the Fifth Grail War repeating itself over and over again.  He realized he couldn’t change what happened to him, but he could manipulate events so his former lover and his past self could find happiness if he tried.
 
 Just not always together, but sometimes things were not meant to be.
 
 However, he had a feeling of dread coiled within his stomach. Something he couldn’t shake that he was seeing from Rin’s cold manner and the Shadow that was threatening to eat Fuyuki City.  He knew who the Shadow was, as did Rin and the current Emiya Shirou.  Especially since Shirou was currently sleeping with the person housing it in her body to supply her fragile existence with mana.
 
 Just the problem was that Matou Sakura was Rin’s younger sister.
 
 Saying Sakura’s story was tragic was an understatement at best.
 
 As a child, Rin’s father gave the younger Tohsaka to the head of the Matou household, a magus line in which all the magic circuits were dead. The grandfather of the family had implanted magical worms into Sakura’s body in an attempt to copy his Magic Crest into the young girl. In return she’d suffered greatly to the point that her whole body had been transformed by the process.  Then the old bastard had transformed Sakura into an immature version of what was tainting the Holy Grail.
 
 This Shadow had to consume mana in order to survive, but in the process it obliterated every living thing it touched.  Even Servants weren’t immune to its grim nature, as Emiya Shirou’s Servant Saber had realized just a scant few nights ago. 
 
 Which left Emiya Shirou practically defenseless, which was one of the reasons they were staying here.  Rin was teaching Shirou how to use magecraft, or rather trying to because the boy was hellishly inept except one odd thing.  Archer knew exactly what that odd thing was, but to bring it up would bring too much attention to his identity which was something he didn’t want.
 
 He’d remembered in his time where she started to teach him magecraft. The lessons developed from more there and then he realized he’d been in love with Tohsaka Rin.  The pendent she used to heal him, the same one that she used as a catalyst to Summon him, had been one of his prize possessions until he returned it to its original owner.
 
 But there was something crawling in his gut that he couldn’t shake as he gathered her things and headed to her mansion.
 
 ******
 
 Shirou cast a look over his shoulder at the beautiful girl with the violet hair standing behind him. Sakura’s amethyst eyes widened, a tiny smile graced her lips as her cheeks flushed attractively as she bowed her head.  The pink ribbon she sported gently touched her cheeks as she cut through the leek.  As he watched he noted the angle of her knife was wrong as he walked up to her and stood behind her with their bodies cradled against each other.
 
 He inhaled her sweet, floral scent as he took her delicate wrists into his hands.  Her skin was startlingly pale against his, as it had been last night and the night before that.  He was filled with awe when it came to her.  She leaned back against him enough so that her silky hair brushed against his chin and neck.
 
 Shirou smiled against her hair and said, “You’re holding the knife wrong, Sakura.  Here, hold it like this.”  He shifted her position and changed the angle she was holding the blade ever so slightly.  He then raised her arm and gently brought it down.  The knife cleanly cut through the vegetable as Shirou said, “Let the blade do the work for you, Sakura, not your arm.”
 
 “You’re good with your hands, Shirou,” she said in a breathy voice before she turned her head to look up at him.  She was breathing hard which caused her breasts to rise and fall with each subtle movement, causing them to press against her shirt.
 
 He swallowed as he watched her before bending down and brushing his lips with hers.  She murmured sweetly against him as their lips caressed.  She turned so she was facing him and her tongue danced to meet his own.  He felt heat rise in his body as the kiss turned hotter. Their tongues met and danced against one and another.  She pressed against him as her hands combed through his hair.
 
 They parted for air and his face was burning, and hers was too if the pink flush on her pale cheeks was any indication.  He stroked her hair and held her protectively.  Her arms wrapped around him tightly as her face pressed into his shoulder, just as it had in the rain.  His hands traced her spine as he whispered, “It’s gonna be okay, Sakura, we’re not going to let this thing beat you.”
 
 “You really think nee-san’s going to try to kill me?” she asked softly as she peered up at him.
 
 Shirou replied, “I don’t think Tohsaka would do anything like that.  Archer on the other hand, he might.”  Because he’s an ass.
 
 “He’d be right though, sempai, I’m a ticking time bomb,” she said before looking away and taking a step back, “I don’t want to murder anyone.”
 
 Shirou gripped her shoulders and met her face.  He peered into her eyes and said, “We’re not going to let that happen to you, Sakura.”
 
 “I already killed Saber!  I . . . my grandfather made me devour her . . . you’re without your Servant in a war that can get you killed!” Sakura protested as her eyes began to waver with tears, “And I don’t want to lose you, sempai.”
 
 Shirou framed her face with his hands and swore, “You’re not going to lose me, I promise.”
 
 “But . . .” she weakly objected, “What if I do become that thing?”
 
 He used his thumbs to brush her tears away as he steadily stared into her eyes.  He said, “Then I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I can save you.”
 
 “Sempai?” she said with wide eyes before he kissed her again.
 
 They parted and he flashed his brightest smile at her.  He said, “Come on, Sakura, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!”
 
 Sakura laughed as they started cooking again.  He smiled as they cooked together, loving the feel of such a mundane task with this girl he’d fallen in love with.  As they were bringing the food to the table, a silent, sensual figure in black drifted over with her long, lavender hair trailing behind her like a banner.  Her covered eyes did not give any hint of expression, but now Shirou knew fully well why she wore the strange visor when she fought against Archer.
 
 Medusa, the Rider class Servant, glided over to them and sat down beside Sakura.  Shirou offered her some soup and asked, “Won’t you try some?”
 
 “I don’t need food to survive, Shirou.  I’m not like Saber,” Rider said in her soft, throaty voice, “I am an actual spirit.”
 
 Shirou held up the pot of miso and asked, “But won’t you try it, Rider?  I’m sure you’ll like it.”
 
 Sakura smiled at Rider and passed her a bowl of the soup.  Rider frowned at it before sighing and sipping gently at it.  Her eyebrows lifted above her visor before she polished off the rest of the bowl before handing it back to Sakura.  She bowed her head and asked, “Sakura, may I have some more?”
 
 Sakura giggled as she poured more of the soup.  As they ate, Rider said, “Master, what are your plans?”
 
 Sakura flushed and then looked at Shirou.  Shirou looked at her and said, “I’d like to talk to Berserker’s Master and try to form an alliance with her, then stop your grandfather and his Servant.”
 
 Sakura nodded and asked, “Does that sound good to you, Rider?”
 
 “What of Archer’s Master?” Rider asked softly as she looked at Sakura behind her visor, “He’s determined to protect her, however, things like honor and fair play are things he’d readily abandon to protect her. Even disobeying her orders to do so.”
 
 Shirou frowned and asked, “You think we should talk to that asshole?”
 
 “And he can talk to Sakura’s sister, yes,” Rider said with a nod.
 
 Sakura swallowed and said, “But his response to the Shadow . . . I heard him say that even in times like this, he’s still called to be a Cleaner? What does that mean?”
 
 “No, we’re not talking to Archer.  He’s not going to listen to us, and I don’t like him,” Shirou said with a snort as he turned his head away, “Especially if Tohsaka is so hard to kill you, Sakura.”
 
 Sakura bowed her head with a nod as her violet eyes narrowed.  “Nee-san doesn’t understand this, she’s being selfish and . . .”  Sakura swallowed and placed her hand against her forehead.  Shirou frowned at her flushed cheeks.
 
 Shirou leaned forward and took her hand.  He asked, “You okay, Sakura?”
 
 Sakura gave him a smile and took a deep breath.  Her body shook with the motion as she said, “I just got dizzy for a second, Sempai, that’s all.”
 
 Shirou asked, “Are you sure?”
 
 “Is it Matou?” Rider asked sharply as she placed her hand on Sakura’s shoulder.
 
 Sakura shook her head and answered, “No, it doesn’t feel like Grandfather, Rider.”
 
 Shirou asked, “Are you sure?”
 
 “Yes, sempai, I’m sure,” Sakura said with a smile as she closed her eyes.  She wavered in her seat before pitching to the side.  Shirou stood up as Rider caught her.  Shirou ran across to the other side as Rider laid Sakura’s trembling body down to the ground.
 
 Sakura was gasping hard for breath as her eyes fluttered towards the back of her head.  She was shaking as Rider cradled her close.  Shirou’s voice sounded odd to him as he screamed, “Rider, what the hell’s wrong with her?”  His heart was pounding in his chest as he knelt beside the girl he’d fallen in love with.
 
 He began to stroke the silky strands of violet hair as he murmured, “It’s okay, Sakura, we’re here, we’re not going to let anything happen to you . . .” He laid a gentle kiss on her forehead as her breathing began to slow and her trembling began to stop.
 
 Rider sighed and said, “She’s beginning to . . .”
 
 Then Sakura jerked hard before collapsing, utterly still in their arms. Shirou shook her and shouted her name as Rider pressed her ear against Sakura’s heart.   “Her heart’s not beating,” Rider said in a trembling voice.
 
 Shirou grabbed Sakura away from the Servant and laid her onto the ground. He placed his hands together and started pounding at her chest. He did five compressions before tilting Sakura’s head back, closing her nose and breathing into it.  He pushed two breaths into her before starting the compressions again.  He pressed harder in his urgency, his body felt as if he’d been drenched in ice as his heart wrenched itself into his throat.
 
 With another press he felt something crack under his hands.  He leaned forward and blew more air between those unresponsive lips.  He did it over and over again for a small eternity before Rider grabbed him with surprisingly weak arms.  She pulled him away from Sakura and whispered, “Shirou, she’s dead . . .”
 
 “No, she’s not dead, I won’t accept that!” Shirou screamed as tears streamed down his face.
 
 Rider’s face fell as she said, “Shirou, she’s dead . . . “
 
 ”How?” Shirou asked as he looked into her face, “How . . .” His body shook with the first sob as he grabbed the still warm body in his arms. He held Sakura close as he cried, “Why?  Rider . . .? Why . . .”
 
 “I . . . I don’t know, Shirou,” Rider whispered as she wiped tears that had spilled from her visor as Shirou held Sakura’s body close.
 
 ******
 “We need to concentrate on winning the War.”
 
 Archer sat up from his place in Rin’s study as his Master approached him.  She was dressed in her normal clothing, the red flattering her aquamarine eyes and raven hair.  It was a sight he never tired of, despite the twist in his heart every time he saw her like this. However, her normally vibrant and warm eyes were icy as she looked past him with her shoulders squared. Her expression was severe and he approached her with a frown on his face.
 
 He asked, “What do you have planned then, Rin?”
 
 “We need to find out who Lancer’s Master is.  I think after your battle against him that you  would have no trouble finishing him, however I am worried about Berserker and Illyasviel,” Rin continued before walking past him to her father’s desk.
 
 Frowning, Archer asked, “And what about Sakura?”
 
 “That’s already been taken care of,” Rin said emotionlessly as she started shuffling papers at her father’s desk.
 
 Archer moved in front of her desk and peered at her.  He asked, “Did Rider and Shirou manage to kill Zouken?”
 
 “No, I killed her,” Rin simply said without looking up as she slid her glasses onto her face.
 
 Archer felt his chest tighten as he looked down at her with wide eyes, her words refusing to register with him. No . . . that’s . . . that’s not suppose to happen . . . “You didn’t,” Archer said softly, “Rin, you’d never . . .”
 
 Rin finally looked up at him with icy aquamarine eyes as she calmly stated, “I did.  I slipped poison into her breakfast this morning.  She should be dead now.  Which means Rider is taken care of as well.”
 
 Archer leaned forward and asked, “You killed your sister?”
 
 “I did.  You said it yourself that I was the best magus that could have Summoned you.  Why are you so surprised that I’d take the actions needed to protect countless people from what my sister will become,” Rin said as her eyes met his.
 
 Sorrow gripped Archer’s heart as he thought, But . . . Rin would never . . . She . . . This isn’t right.  This isn’t suppose to happen like this.
 
 He took a deep breath as he said, “Yes, Rin, you’re right.  We need to concentrate on winning the Grail, but I wouldn’t count Rider out yet.”
 
 “Why do you say that?” Rin asked as she tilted her head, “There’s not a spare Master that could take her.”
 
 Archer leaned forward and said, “Yes there is and his name is Emiya Shirou, and if you think he’ll back down after this, you’re sorely mistaken.”
 
 “Yes, but he doesn’t have mana to supply Rider, nor will he allow her to use her Bloodfort either.  You’re worrying about nothing,” Rin said dismissively.
 
 Archer snorted and said, “Then you’re forgetting about Tantric Rites then, Rin.  You killed his lover and they will find out, especially since you fled without a trace.”
 
 “Well, you can kill Rider when it comes down to it,” Rin said absently as she continued to read.
 
 Archer looked at her and said, “And Emiya Shirou?”
 
 “He’s not a worry, once Rider is gone, he’s harmless and can get on with his life.  He shouldn’t have been involved in this War in the first place,” Rin said as she looked up at him.
 
 Archer stared at her and stated, “Then you’re sorely underestimating Emiya Shirou.”
 
 
******
 
Shirou cried until his eyes burned.  His stomach was in knots and lunch was threatening to escape his stomach as he held Sakura’s cooling body close to her.  He kept expecting her to open her violet eyes and look up at him.  To take his hand and hold him close against her while she stroked his hair reassuringly.  Instead, her body began to stiffen in his arms while it kept getting cooler and cooler.
 
 “What happened to her Rider?” Shirou asked as he looked at Rider’s beautiful face.
 
 Rider shook her head and replied, “I don’t know, Shirou, I don’t know . . .”
 
 “She was fine this morning!” Shirou shouted, “Was it the Shadow inside her or . . .” He gripped his hands to tight that his nails started to bite into his skin.  He looked at Rider as she gently took Sakura’s still form from his arms.
 
 Shirou’s eyes widened as Rider moved Sakura’s hair from her throat. Shirou gasped as he saw a flash of white fangs he saw peek out of Rider’s mouth before she bit Sakura’s throat.  He gasped and moved to push her away when Rider lifted her head.  Her mouth was smeared with red and she spat up a little bit while her face distorted in disgust. She looked at Shirou and said, “She was poisoned.”
 
 “Her grandfather?” Shirou asked as he stared at Sakura’s body.
 
 Rider gently laid Sakura down and said, “No, her sister.”
 
 “Tohsaka would never kill her sister,” Shirou said with a tiny shake of his head.
 
 Rider rose up to her feet, her long lavender hair swishing elegantly around her.  She calmly said with her lips pursed, “Then let’s ask Rin herself then.”
 
 “She’s probably in her room, talking to that asshole,” Shirou said as he stood up as well.  He started to head towards the guest room with Rider following like a lovely shadow behind him.  He knocked on the guest room door but there was no answer.  He pounded harder but there was still no response.
 
 He narrowed his eyes and said, “Tohsaka, let me in, I need to talk.”
 
 Again, no answer.
 
 Rider said to him, “Shirou, open the door.”
 
 Shirou swallowed and did.  They stepped inside the empty room and Shirou’s throat tightened at the sight around him.  When Tohsaka had first taken over the room, she turned it upside down within moments. Now the room was even more pristine than when he had given it to her and he had a feeling that it was Archer’s doing.  The two of them looked around the empty room as Shirou whispered, “No . . .”
 
 “Rin killed her sister,” Rider sneered as her body tensed, “She betrayed her own sister!  How could she?  She should have tried to save her at any cost, not . . . Not this.”  Rider bit her lip and looked at Shirou.  Shirou’s chest was tight and his whole body was burning.  He could feel his heart pounding in his head as he felt something like a hammer come down within him.  It filled him with burning heat as he took a deep breath and looked at Rider.
 
 He said, “Tohsaka . . . Tohsaka killed her own sister . . . How could she do such a thing?”
 
 “She’s a magus, Shirou, that’s all there is to it,” Rider said as she clinched her hands into fists as she began to waver ever so slightly.
 
 Shirou looked at the marks on his hand and then back at the sultry figure in black before him.  Rider’s face was tense and drawn under her visor and the rest of her was still.  He held out his hand to her and grit his teeth.  He said, “Rider, we’ll get the person who did this. We’ll stop this from happening to anyone else, I swear it.”
 
 Rider’s eyebrows lifted from beneath her visor as her mouth parted open.  She closed her mouth and her brow furrowed as she held out her hand to Shirou. She took it and said, “I Pledge to you my Service, I am Your Weapon, I Accept the Contract.  I, Servant Rider, willingly become Emiya Shirou’s Servant.”
 
 There was a flare of energy between them and Shirou gasped as the remaining Command Seals flashed bright red again.  He hissed as if someone had shoved a hot poker into his hand, but his eyes never left Rider’s face.  Her face became drawn again as she said, “Now, I await your Orders, Master.  What do you will of me?”
 
 “We’re going after Tohsaka,” Shirou said tensely as his shoulders shook.

[Elf]

As soon as the sky grew dark, Archer’s self-fulfilling prophecy came true.
 
 He was pouring Rin a cup of tea when the spiked nail came crashing through the window.  Automatically he grabbed Rin and drug her to the floor as the chain made a musical clang before being jerked back out the broken window, sending glass flying out everywhere.  Both of them looked out and Rin’s aquamarine eyes widened as the nail and chain came rushing into the room again, hooking onto an overstuffed chair in the living room.  The chain pulled taunt before the chair itself was airborne when the chain went jerking back through the window.  The chair shattered the window, sending glass everywhere before crashing to the ground.
 
 Standing in front of the broken window was a voluptuous figure with long, lavender hair trailing sinuously down the ample curves of her body while holding the nails and chain in her elegant hands.  Moonlight cut across her sensual figure as she stared at them with covered eyes, her soft mouth curved in a sneer.  Standing beside her, holding a bow with a quiver of arrows on his back, was a familiar redheaded boy, but his skin was a few shades paler than normal and there was a white bandage around his neck.  Archer froze for a brief moment at the sheer grief written in those all too familiar sherry eyes as Emiya Shirou nocked another arrow in the bow.
 
 “Tohsaka!” the teen shouted, his voice raw and hoarse, sounding all too much like Archer’s own.
 
 With her cheeks slightly flushed, Rin pushed at Archer’s chest and he let her go.  She gracefully rose to her feet and straightened out her skirt before squaring her shoulders.  She met Shirou’s eyes, tossed her raven hair back, and said, “Is there a need to destroy my home, Emiya-kun?”
 
 “Why?  Why did you do it, Tohsaka?” he screamed as Rider kept her covered gaze on Archer as he stood up beside Rin, towering over his slight Master.  He looked down at Rin as he silently asked that question himself. It’s not supposed to happen like that, Rin.  You weren’t going to be able to do it and you and Emiya Shirou should have saved her, he thought as he waited.
 
 Instead, Rin coldly answered, “Because a magus’ sanctity isn’t in their life, but in their soul.  I was not going to let my sister become a mass murderer.”
 
 “Why didn’t you try to help her, Tohsaka?” Shirou demanded as he kept his bow aimed at her.
 
 Rin began to slowly roll up her right sleeve as she kept her eyes locked on him.  Archer knew fully well what she was revealing, but the sickly green glow spreading across the pristine white of her skin was still a shock to him even now.  She answered, “There was nothing I could have done Emiya-kun.  Besides, isn’t one life lost worth the cost of many lives saved?”
 
 Archer inwardly flinched at her words as Rider started to pivot with her chains, the lengths clacking as she readied the spikes in her hands. He flexed his hands and opened up his Magic Circuits.  He felt the strong pull of mana from Rin running hot through his body as he Traced his beloved Falchions in his hands.  He readied the curved short swords as he and Rider warily watched each other as their Masters had their exchange.
 
 Shirou’s face fell as Rin threw his former ideal back in his face.  He whispered, “I just wanted to save Sakura.”
 
 Rin tilted her head and said, “I’m sorry it didn’t happen that way, Emiya-kun, but I did what had to be done.”
 
 “I’m not going to forgive you for that, Tohsaka,” Shirou hissed as his eyes narrowed at her, his arm ever steady as he held the arrow.
 
 Rin simply replied, “I’m not asking your forgiveness.”
 
 “And I’m not letting someone like you win the Grail War,” Shirou shouted before letting the arrow fly.
 
 Rin’s crest flared to life as she moved her arm to block the arrow. Rider launched at Archer, throwing the spike in her right hand at him. He easily deflected it with Kansho before rushing at her as well.  Oddly enough, he reached her first, throwing them both outside Rin’s house in a mass of hair, tangled limbs, and weapons.  Rider’s feet hit the ground and she gracefully pivoted away from him to land in a crouch before slithering up to her feet.
 
 “What’s it like to serve a murderess who would kill her own sister?” Rider hissed as she scowled at him.
 
 Archer said nothing as he took a stance with his swords, sensing Rider out. 
 
 Even with drinking Shirou’s blood, her mana was now low with the loss of her true Master and Shirou would never have allowed her to activate her Bloodfort.  Even if Shirou had sex with her to replenish her mana by Tantric Rites as well as drank his blood, she was no where near her peak.  She could keep attacking him at ranged combat, which would have hindered a normal Archer class Servant, but Archer wasn’t exactly normal.  Using Pegasus and Belaphon would have been advantage for almost any of the other Servants except Caster and him.  Her best chance would be to drop her visor, but with the mana he was currently getting from Rin as well as his Reinforcement and magic resistance, all that would do was slow him down.
 
 The battle had been decided as soon as Rider attacked him.
 
 “You’re not going to win this, Rider,” he said quietly as he faced her, keeping his eyes on her black clad form. 
 
 Her lavender hair caressed the ground as she shifted her weight from her stance as she continued to watch him behind her visor.  She replied, “Are you sure of that, Archer?”
 
 “Take your Master and get the hell out of here,” Archer snapped at her.
 
 Rider’s eyebrows lifted and her mouth parted in surprise as she stood upright.  She pointed one of the spikes at him and demanded, “What the hell are you saying Archer?  Are you throwing the fight?”
 
 “I’m doing this for Sakura,” Archer said quietly, “She’d want both of you to win this.”
 
 Rider hissed, “But your bitch of a Master killed her in cold blood! Poisoned her and ran away after everything was neatly wrapped up.”
 
 Archer flinched slightly as he admitted, “Rin was wrong.”
 
 “If this is some ploy or battle tactic . . .” Rider sneered at him, baring her fangs at him.
 
 Archer dropped his arms and disengaged the mana of the weapons.  Kansho and Bakyura faded from sight as he held up his empty palms to Rider. “Rin. Was. Wrong.  Things shouldn’t have played out as they did,” he said thoughtfully as a sound like gunshots came from the Tohsaka Manor. The sound like machine gun fire sped up as flashes came from the darkened windows of the western style house.
 
 Rider jumped away from Archer and hissed, “This was a ploy to give that bitch time enough to kill Shirou!” 
 
 Then she tilted her head back to expose her long white throat.  She lifted her left hand with the spike in it to her throat before jamming it in the side of her throat.  She bent forward, coughing and spewing blood from her mouth and her throat as her mouth opened and closed in agony.  Archer hissed as he jumped away as her blood formed a magic circle around her and bright light began to issue from it.
 
 Instead of tracing his swords, his bow was in his hand as the giant, beautiful white horse with its long, shining wings took to the air with Rider on its back.  With each beat of those powerful wings, wind made Archer’s tail whip back and bits of grass, twigs, and leaves hit him like wasp stings.  Pegasus took to the air with Rider mounting it, turning midair to rush at Rin’s ancestral home.
 
 “I am the bone of my sword,” Archer whispered with a heavy heart as he lowered his right hand.  The bright silver blade was twisted for aerodynamics as he loaded it into his bow.  He forced more mana into the copy of the ancient Irish blade he had learned about just to beat one damned Irish servant that killed him ages ago.  He aimed the impromptu “arrow” with his sharp eyes at the figure as Rider readied her Noble Phantasm.
 
 “Calablog!” Archer shouted as he released the Broken Phantasm.
 
 He chanted again as the arrow impacted with the mysterious beast, “Steel is my body, fire is my blood . . .” The now wickedly jagged black sword formed in his hands as charged more mana into it.  His eyes narrowed at the blood now streaking the white beast as Rider tried to keep it aloft, her form slumping as well as blood continued to pour down her body, mingling with her black clothing and streaking through her exotic hair.  Archer gritted his teeth and hissed, “Hrunting.”
 
 The sword went flying, striking Pegasus right in the heart.  The beast reared up with a cry right before the mana in the sword caught.  Archer stood up as the beast and its beautiful mistress caught fire as Rider screamed.  Rider arched back, her visor shattering under the heat of the Broken Phantasm.  Archer could see the odd lilac and squared pupils of her eyes even as far as he was before Servant and Divine Mystery dissolved into nothingness.
 
 Then he was aware of the sound of the machine gun firing again.  He spun around to the house and began to sprint towards the battle within.
 
 ******
 
 Shirou cried out as what felt like a burning poker was driven through his hand.  He winched at the familiar emptiness as he crouched a desk. It felt as if someone had driven a spike through his heart, pain so intense he only felt once before when he lost Saber.  He dropped his bow as he watched as his Command Seal flared on his hand before becoming dull.  He hissed in pain right as one of those black bolts went sailing past his head like a gunshot again.
 
 He dodged behind a bookcase and peered to see Tohsaka advancing with her sickly glowing arm.  She pointed her finger at him and fired again. He managed to dodge the blast by ducking behind a giant sofa.  He heard more firing and gritted his teeth.  He saw his bow in the corner of his eye from his last hiding place.
 
 I can’t fight her like this, Shirou thought scowling, I need something else . . . something . . .
 
 Shirou’s eyes widened as the image of that asshole’s swords entered his mind.  One pristine white, the other black marked with red honeycombs, two pieces of a whole that were utterly gorgeous.  If he had something like that he could beat Tohsaka.  His vision flashed red as his head started to pound.  His breath caught in his chest as fire raced through his body.  There was a pulse like a hammer going down on an anvil as mana flooded through his body.
 
 With a scream, those beautiful Falchions were in his hands.
 
 He forced more mana into his legs to charge Tohsaka.  Her aquamarine eyes widened as she forced her arms up in front of her face to take the swords.  He pressed down on the curved blades against her arm until fabric was cut.  However, flesh yielded much more slowly as Tohsaka surprisingly kept blocking until her leg snapped out and kicked him in the stomach.
 
 He was jerked back and she cried out as the blades cut into her flesh to draw blood against her pale skin.  She cradled her bleeding arms against each other as Shirou recovered and charged again.  She held out her right arm, with the odd glowing runes on it, and pointed her finger at him.  The ball of black energy shot at him but he blocked it with his swords.
 
 The pristine blades shattered under the impact and Shirou hissed as he felt the reverberation through his arms and jerk his shoulders.  He threw his hands down again and pictured those swords in his mind.  He broke them down into eight parts and visualized the parts coming together.  He hissed as they reformed in his hands with a sharp, hot pain coming up through his shoulders.  He ignored it as well as the hot liquid trickling down from where the pain started as he charged Tohsaka again.
 
 She hissed as she shot at him again.  Again the blades broke but Shirou reformed them in his hands.  He flinched as he felt as if something jerked out of his back followed by the burning sensation as well as liquid warmth trickling down the area.  Tohsaka’s eyes widened for a moment right before she rolled into another room.
 
 Shirou followed her into another study.  He saw her standing at a desk with some sort of dagger in her hands.  She stared him down as he approached.  He moved to attack her when she thrust out with the dagger. He moved to block her only to get one long, elegant finger pointed in his face.
 
 There was a flash of black and his body couldn’t move.  His head felt swollen and stuffy and he couldn’t get any air through his nose.  His whole body ached and it had nothing to do with what was currently sticking out of his body.  He fell to the ground as his limbs refused to support him.  Then Tohsaka approached him with lifeless eyes, the dagger still in her hand.
 
 ******
 
 Archer ran into Rin’s father’s study right as Shirou fell to the ground.  The Servant’s shoulders tensed as he noted the tiny bits of silver sticking up from the boy’s shoulders as well as the white part of the baseball shirt he was wearing soaked red with blood.  Then his eyes flickered up to where Rin was standing before Shirou, her aquamarine eyes hazy and unreadable as she approached the former Master.  Archer combed through the records in his mind as fast as he could, trying to see if there was a situation that he’d experienced like this through out the various loops he had repeated.  There was something, a record of Rin telling him with Saber cold eyed by her side that she’d taken Shirou’s Command Seals, his Servant and then proceeded to wipe his memory.  Shirou had lived a normal life after that, ending up with Ayako of all people while Archer himself had defeated Gilgamesh and Saber had to destroy the Grail.
 
 He figured she would do something like that, taking away the painful reminders of his lost love.  It was a cruel mercy, but Archer realized it would be best for his younger self if she did wipe his memory.  He watched as Rin approached, but she still had the dagger in her hand. Frowning, Archer watched as Rin gracefully knelt beside Shirou and drew up the blade.
 
 Sherry eyes met his now steel grey ones.
 
 Archer’s chest tightened at the fury and hatred he saw there.  However, it tightened even more as he looked into Rin’s empty face right as she drove the blade right into Emiya Shirou’s heart.  He stood there frozen as Rin drove the blade home, blood spraying her hands and face as Shirou’s eyes rolled back.  His body twitched and shuddered, fighting against the intruder before his heart finally stopped.  He lay still with the AZTOH dagger embedded in his chest until Rin calmly jerked it out.
 
 Rin rose to her feet and looked at him with that calm countenance.  She simply said, “Servant Archer, help me take care of these wounds.”  She held up her still bleeding arms as she looked into his face.  He stared at her as she added, “And then we can take care of Emiya-kun’s body.” She gave a tiny snort as she shook her head, “Well, you got what you wanted, didn’t you, Archer?”
 
 No, I didn’t, he thought as he followed his Master with one last look at his alternate self’s broken body and the hatred set in those now dead eyes.
 
 ******
 Archer walked into Rin’s room to find the girl’s back towards him.  Her long black hair tumbled freely down her back, but her bare arms indicated she’d already taken off her shirt.  It had been a sight that always got his heart racing and his blood pounding with her white skin and ebon hair as well as the slim, elegant lines of her body.  In another reality, she would have spun around, held her arms over her chest and screamed at him, but she simply turned around and extended her bloody arms.
 
 She’d already applied healing spells to the wounds, but they still needed to be cleaned and bound.  He had an armful of medical supplies as she sat down in front of her vanity with her aquamarine eyes ahead.  He quickly averted his eyes to her pale, girlish developing form as he knelt in front of her and set the supplies beside him.  Without saying anything, he took her right arm and looked at the deep furrow Shirou had cut into her arm.  Even with Reinforcement, Kansho and Bakyura were swords not to be trifled with. 
 
 “How was he able to create your swords?” Rin said as Archer began to dab a towel soaked with alcohol to disinfect the wound.  Rin hissed a little, she stiffened but she did not pull back.  Her eyes narrowed at him as she awaited the answer.  She hadn’t made it an Order, so he simply continued to clean out the wound.
 
 She demanded, “Servant Archer, I demand you to tell me how he was able to create your swords.”
 
 “You know of Emiya Shirou’s one specialty.  He saw me call upon my swords to fight Rider, how do you think he was able to Trace my swords?” Archer replied with grit teeth as he began to rub ointment on the wounds.  He stretched out the bandage and began to wrap it tightly around her arm.
 
 Rin nodded, satisfied with the answer.  She said, “Now that Rider is out of the way, that leaves Berserker, Lancer, and True Assassin.  I know you can handle True Assassin and Lancer, but Berserker is another matter.  Perhaps we should form a temporary ally with Lancer’s Master.”
 
 Archer stiffened and tightened the bandage enough to make Rin flinch. Her breath drew a sharp wince and she stiffened.  Archer thought of another Servant with gold hair and crimson eyes with a deep obsession for Saber.  The most powerful of the Servants, the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh was his concern because the Servant thought the world needed to be cleansed and would use the corrupted Grail to do so.
 
 And with Emiya Shirou dead, he was the only one with any link to know that the Grail was corrupted and could do anything about it.
 
 He sighed and said, “I’m not working with Lancer.”
 
 “Why not?” Rin asked hotly as she glared down at him.
 
 His shoulders stiffened as he felt a sharp pain over his heart, a reminder what the drunk Irish bastard did to him when he was a teenager. He answered, “Because our personalities would conflict.  I say we form an alliance with Berserker and Ilya.”  Because with Emiya Shirou dead, there’s no one to protect my little sister except me. Not that he would voice that to Rin right now. 
 
 He looked up at Rin, clad only in her white bra and black mini skirt with her thigh highs.  In any other version, the sight would have driven him mad with desire to take her, to be with her, to find comfort with the one woman he’d lost his heart to over and over again.  Now he still felt a pang of lust, but it wasn’t the same.  Instead he felt heavy and confused to why this Rin was acting the way she was.
 
 Rin frowned at him and asked, “Ilya?  Don’t you mean Berserker’s Master?”
 
 “Yeah,” Archer said absently as he finished binding her other arm before standing up.
 
 She narrowed her eyes at him and asked, “What aren’t you telling me?”
 
 “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to kill your sister?” Archer shot back with a glare.
 
 Rin’s eyes widened as she looked up at him.  Her cheeks flushed, showing more emotion now than she had in the past three days, and she snapped, “Because you’re my Servant, it doesn’t matter to you.  You should just care that I managed to take out another Master who would have caused more lives to be lost than necessary.”
 
 “It does matter to me, Rin.  I told you at the beginning that there are things I will and will not do.  You didn’t have to kill your sister,” Archer snapped back, “We could have figured something out, asked that moron to help us, something, anything, but yet you stand here reeking of blood.”
 
 Rin looked away and her shoulders dropped.  She turned away from him and said woodenly, “I tried, Archer.  Did you not think I wouldn’t try to save my sister?  I’m not that cold hearted.”
 
 Archer’s shoulders tensed as his eyes narrowed at her.  He turned away and said, “No, I use to think you were a kind person, Rin.”  He started to walk out of her bedroom.  He turned his head to look at her.  She had her hands at her sides and clinched into fists as she looked up at him. She bit her lip as his eyes met hers.
 
 His shoulders sagged as some of the tension was released as he looked into her eyes.  They stared at each other for a long moment before Archer said quietly, “I was trying to keep this War from changing you like this Rin.”
 
 Her eyes widened before she crossed her bandaged arms over her chest and tossed her hair.  She looked to the side and snapped, “This is a War, Archer.  We’re going to need to act like it from now on and not let sentiment get in the way.”
 
 “Very well.  Master,” Archer said before walking out of the room.
 
 ******
 “I think this is the first time a Servant has ever came to the Mediator of a Grail War.”
 
 Archer’s eyes narrowed at the False Priest before him.  As a teenager, Kotomine Kieri made him uneasy and angry, as a Servant, Archer simply wanted to kill the man and save everyone a giant mess.  Besides, with the man’s track record he would probably end up as Archer did, as a Cleaner, a Counter Guardian for humanity, but for the wrong reasons. Staring at the tall man, Archer thought that would be a fitting sort of hell for the man who was responsible for his and Rin’s fathers’ deaths.
 
 Archer met the man’s dark, endless eyes and replied, “Yeah, but you know I’m unorthodox for a Servant.”
 
 “Is this about my apprentice?” Kotomine asked with a dry smile, “Rin is a lot of trouble as you’ve seen, however, if you wish a new Master you have to go about your own way of doing that.”  His eyes looked over Archer as he thoughtfully tilted his head, “Or perhaps Rin is causing you frustration of another, more earthly, nature.”
 
 Archer’s jaw ticked as he clinched his fists at his sides, willing back the urge to Trace his beloved short swords and cut the man down.  Not now, not yet.  He couldn’t sense Gilgamesh or Lancer in the Church, but that didn’t mean anything.  Besides, he had something of a more personal nature to attend to while here.
 
 Kotomine chuckled and said, “If she is, you wouldn’t be the first Servant to overpower their Master in such a manor, or are you the type that is too noble to do such a thing?  Your noble intentions and lofty ideals are why your hands are stained in blood.”
 
 “Like you have room to talk, Father,” Archer said dryly.
 
 Kotomine’s eyes narrowed before he smirked darkly at Archer.  He tilted his head thoughtfully and asked, “Would you like a glass of wine, Servant Archer?  I know you don’t need it, but as you know, physical desires reborn are hard to deny.”
 
 “I don’t drink alcohol,” Archer answered stonily.
 
 Kotomine studied him and said, “You remind me of someone, interesting.”
 
 “Where’s Gilgamesh?” Archer asked bluntly, his eyes meeting Kotomine’s again, finding it odd that he actually had to look up at someone.
 
 Kotomine’s eyes widened before he laughed, his rich booming laughter filling the hollow church.  The priest started to walk back to his office and Archer followed him.  He tilted his head back to watch Archer and said, “So, how much do you know, Servant Archer?”
 
 “More than you do, Kieri,” Archer replied with a smirk.
 
 Kotomine smirked and said, “I know quite a bit.  Like how Rin’s father would be disappointed in how Sakura was taken care of.”
 
 “What do you mean?” Archer asked as he glared at the priest.
 
 Kotomine chuckled and said, “Yes, Tokomi said his greatest wish was to have his two daughters fight each other to the death.  The winner would go down in history as a powerful magus while the loser would still be hailed as a worthy adversary.  Unfortunately, Rin killed her sister more quietly than Tokomi would have liked.”
 
 Archer’s eye twitched as his shoulders tightened.  His Magic Circuits were pounding in time with his anger, the swords coming easily and rapidly into his mind as he absently named each of them off in his head. Kotomine tilted his head to look at Archer and he smirked.  “I know who you remind me of.  You remind me of. . .”  His eyes drifted over Archer’s form before focusing on his face.  “Kiritsigru.”
 
 “The man who kicked your ass in the Fourth Grail war,” Archer sneered as he stood to his full height and glowered at the priest.
 
 Kotomine’s smirk grew into a full smile as he said, “Yes.  I knew Emiya Shirou was empty, but not empty enough to take a broken man’s broken ideal to the extremes you did, Servant Archer.  I see age did not curb your impatient nature too much, Shirou.”
 
 “No, in fact, it made it worse in some ways,” Archer said as he felt the mana building to create the blades as he let go of the control he was trying to reign when speaking with this man.
 
 Kotomine shook his head and said, “It would have been an extraordinary thing, a Master who is also a Servant in the same Grail War.”
 
 “So, where the hell is Gilgamesh?” Archer asked.
 
 Kotomine tilted his head and asked, “Why do you care?”
 
 “Because I want to know how much trouble I’m about to have killing you,” Archer said evenly.
 
 “I see,” Kotomine said with that knowing smirk that still managed to get under Archer’s skin, “What would you do if I told you that Archer was here, Servant Archer?”
 
 Archer returned the smirk and said, “Kill you, blow up the Church, cutting off Goldie’s mana supply and get the hell out of here before he could respond.”
 
 “You sound certain of yourself, Servant Archer,” Kotomine said thoughtfully.
 
 Archer stared at him and replied, “And Lancer’s not even a problem in this equation.”
 
 “You’re right, Zouken’s True Assassin already killed Lancer,” Kotomine said casually as if he was talking about the weather as he walked to a cabinet in his study.  He opened it and casually pulled out a bottle of wine and a wine glass.  He opened the bottle of wine with a subtle twist of his wrist and poured himself a glass.
 
 Archer snorted, “Poor Irish bastard never gets a break.”
 
 “I take it you’re not a normal Epic Hero then, Emiya Shirou?” Kotomine asked as he took a drink of his wine.
 
 Archer shrugged and said, “I’m just a Cleaner.”
 
 “Counter Guardian, it’s a rumor within both the Church and the Association,”  Kotomine mused, “And unlike other Servants which are just copies of heroic spirits, you’re actually aware of what happens here.”
 
 “And every variation that I’ve fought in.  Or rather, I have academic records of what happens in ever variation of the Grail War, they’re just damned hard to read,” Archer said dryly.
 
 Kotomine tilted his head and said, “You’re telling me quite a lot for my executioner, Emiya Shirou.”
 
 “Well, you’re a priest, aren’t you suppose to take confessions?” Archer retorted as he lifted one eyebrow, “I mean, I know of your sins already, and I believe in fair trade.”
 
 Kotomine’s laughter echoed through out the room before he looked back at Archer.  “You are Kiritsigu’s son, aren’t you?” he asked, “You even look like him a bit.  I’d bet he’d be proud that you followed in his miserable footsteps.”
 
 Archer let the priest’s words roll off of him and took a deep breath.  “Emiya Kiritsigu had a beautiful dream.”
 
 “But it obviously brought you nothing but grief, Emiya Shirou,” Kotomine said dryly, “I take it you’ve lost possibly even more than Kiritsigu did.”
 
 Archer’s jaw tensed as an image of a beautiful woman with long, wavy raven hair and eyes like the ocean grinning up teasingly at him.  Her hands as she ran them through his hair as it turned from red to white or tending to his body as he shorted out his nerves from Tracing something he shouldn’t.  White skin and subtle curves with long, gorgeous legs and surprisingly strong arms as she was the one comfort in his hellish quest to save as many as he could.  The woman that made Tohsaka Rin such a bittersweet pang to him in every loop of the Fifth Grail War he had fought in.
 
 Save one.
 
 Kotomine smiled at him and asked, “Would you like to continue with your confession Emiya Shirou?”
 
 “No, and if Gilgamesh was here, he would have already tried to defend you by now,” Archer said as he Traced his beloved swords.
 
 Kotomine began to take a stance as he pulled out three long, slim swords with back handles from his robes.  Archer recognized the Black Keys and nearly snorted as the Falchions appeared in his hands. Kotomine stated, “I’m not defenseless, Emiya Shirou.”
 
 “And I’m not a reckless teenager anymore either, Kieri,” Archer said as the two men advanced on each other.
 
 ******
 
 Archer calmly walked out of the ruins of the burning church only to see Rin standing there in her school uniform and her billowing red coat with her arms crossed under her small breasts.  The firelight flickered across her face and set crimson highlights in her black hair as the hot air from the fire flicked her hair back.  She glared up at him and asked, “What the hell where you doing, Archer?”
 
 “You said this was a War and that we should act accordingly, so I killed a Master and cut off his Servant’s mana supply,” Archer said dryly as he wiped a bit of soot from his face.  He had personally gone down to where Kotomine had stored the orphans and burned it to the ground with a few assorted swords that were known for causing fires. That twisted sight still struck him, not as hard as it had when he had been Rin’s age, but it was still painful to bare.  He did not look at his Master as he walked past her.
 
 Rin demanded, “What are you talking about, Archer?  Why did you burn down Kieri’s Church?”
 
 “Because he was a Master from the Fourth Grail War who had been supplying a Servant from that War with mana,” Archer said stonily.
 
 Rin’s eyes widened as she asked, “Why?”
 
 “So he could corrupt the world in evil,” Archer stated as Rin ran to catch up with him, her loafers pounding the pavement.
 
 Rin stared up at him before she smiled up at him.  She said, “Well, that was very admirable for you to do, Archer.” She then scowled at him and snapped, “But let me know the next time you decide to act independently!”
 
 “Sorry, it’s a trait of the Archer class,” Archer retorted, “To act on our own when we don’t agree with our Master’s wishes.”
 
 Rin’s cheeks flushed as she asked, “What the hell are you saying, Archer?”
 
 “I thought it would be obvious, Rin,” Archer snorted with a tiny shake of his head.
 
 Rin’s hands clinched into fists at her sides as she hissed, “Are you questioning my competence as a Master, Archer?”
 
 “No, you’re just a little too . . .” Archer’s comment died off on his lips as he looked ahead of him.  His heavily Reinforced eyes widened ever so slightly at the slight figure in purple velvet with flowing silvery white hair standing and staring at him from on top of one of the business buildings near the church.  Her crimson eyes met his as her hair danced in the icy night wind.  They were wide and wet with unshed tears and the look of sorrow on her face twisted Archer’s heart.
 
 “Competent,” Archer finished in a whisper.
 
 Rin frowned and asked, “What is it?”
 
 “Go home, I’ll follow you,” Archer said icily.
 
 Rin demanded, “What is it, Archer?  I am your Master and we fight side by side.  I’m not letting you go do anything alone.”  Her face softened as she quietly added, “Because you’re the only person I can trust.”
 
 Archer’s chest tightened as he sighed.  His shoulders slumped as he said, “Rin, please, go home.  I’ll follow you.  I just have a bad feeling about something.”
 
 “I should come with you to investigate then,” Rin said as she tilted her chin up haughtily.
 
 Archer ignored the look on her face as he turned around and Reinforced his legs.  He hunched up his muscles and jumped, sending him airborne into the night.
 
 ******
 Ilya Von Eisenburn’s crimson eyes widened as Archer touched down on the rooftop beside her.  He sat down as he looked out into the starry night and she joined him, kicking her little boots against the cold concrete. He didn’t look at her as he said, “You’re going to catch a cold, Ilya.”
 
 “Why did she kill onii-chan?” Ilya asked softly with a thick voice.
 
 Archer looked down at her and his heart twisted.  She was looking up at him with tear filled eyes and a trembling lower lip, but her tears weren’t falling.  Her small, mitten covered hands were clinched into fists as she curled up her knees to her chest and rested her chin upon them.  Her white hair spilled over the rich, royal purple of her coat, reminding him yet again of a snow faerie come to parlay with the mortals.  She was something too beautiful and fragile to associate with mere fools like him, but here she was sitting beside him and he was suddenly a teenager again watching the stars with his little sister. Even though at the time she had been technically two years older than him, but she looked like a child physically.  Which embedded her with an odd combination of childlike innocence and adult wisdom.
 
 Just like a snow faerie.
 
 Archer sighed and answered, “I don’t know, Ilya.”
 
 “Why didn’t you stop her, onii-chan?” Ilya asked with a loud sniffle as she stared up at him.
 
 Archer quietly whispered, “I didn’t know she could go through with it.”
 
 “That bitch killed her own sister!” Ilya screamed into the night, “Then she killed my onii-chan and . . .” Then Ilya’s tears broke and the girl started sobbing loudly, her whole body shaking with the force of her agony.  Archer’s heart twisted as he did the only thing he could think of.  He gently pulled Ilya into his lap and held her close while he stroked her hair and absently murmured that everything was going to be alright.
 
 Ilya looked up at him and whispered, “Liar.”
 
 He closed his eyes as well, feeling his own eyes sting as he held her close and rested his head against the soft velvet of her pill hat.  He confessed, “She wasn’t supposed to do that, Ilya.  Emiya Shirou should have saved Sakura and ended up with her.  I should have died protecting Rin but everything’s fucked up now, Ilya.”
 
 “Nothing ever happens the same way especially in alternate realities,” Ilya said softly as she tilted her tear stained face up to his.
 
 Archer sighed, “But Rin is always Rin . . . And . . .”
 
 “And you’ve fallen in love with her again and again in your endless loop, I know that, onii-chan.  As I know all the Servants, but I’m not your Ilya and she’s not your Rin,” Ilya said as she put a soft mitten covered hand on each side of his face as her thumbs stroked the hard ridges of his cheeks.  “But there are always anomalies.  That Rin was not the Rin that you married.  In this reality she chose the path of the magus.”
 
 “It hurts, Ilya,” Archer confessed as he stroked her hair, “Seeing the face of the girl I fell in love with doing all of these things . . . Being so cold and calculating as if . . .”
 
 Ilya’s face scrunched up as she snapped, “She killed my onii-chan! And . . .”
 
 Archer let Ilya go and she looked up at him with her large, ruby eyes. Her soft hand took his and he sighed, just so damned exhausted.  She looked ahead, her eyes widened, and she wavered on her feet.  Archer automatically caught her and cradled her to his body.  She was breathing hard and trembling in his arms.  Sweat was trickling down her pale skin as she looked up at him.
 
 “Berserker’s dead,” Archer said.
 
 Ilya clutched his arm and asked, “How, and why and . . . not my Berserker!  It’s not fair, onii-chan! I lost Mommy and Daddy and oni-chan and now Berserker . . . Why, onii-chan?”
 
 “I’d wager it was Gilgamesh,” Archer said as he sat down and cradled Ilya to him.
 
 Ilya frowned and asked, “Who’s that?”
 
 “Archer Servant from the last War that Kotomine’s been providing with mana since then,” Archer answered grimly.
 
 “So, you’ve known all this and didn’t think to share this with your Master?” Rin’s voice snapped from behind him.
 
 Archer didn’t turn around and said, “That’s why I burned down the Church, Rin.  I cut off Gilgamesh’s mana supply.”
 
 “And you say Gilgamesh, as in the Sumerian King of Heroes?” Rin demanded as she stepped up, ignoring Ilya.
 
 Archer sighed, “The very same arrogant bastard.”
 
 “And you’re fraternizing with another Master,” Rin hissed, pointing at Ilya.
 
 He replied, “She lost her Servant. She’s just a child Rin.”
 
 “In case you forgot, she was going to murder Emiya and myself as well as have her hulking brute of a Servant kill you and Saber,” Rin snapped as she glared down at Ilya.
 
 Ilya hissed, “And you killed my onii-chan, you bitch!”
 
 “I’m a Master, it’s my duty to kill other Masters.  Even though you don’t have a Servant, I’m not going to let you form another contract with another Servant,” Rin said as she pointed her finger at Ilya, the black gand already starting to form there.
 
 Archer stood up and stepped in front of his little sister.  He glared down at his Master and snapped, “You want more blood on your hands, Rin?”
 
 “I’m not leaving another Master, even without a Servant, alive,” Rin hissed at him.
 
 Archer grabbed her wrists and bent down so their faces were about level.  Rin’s breath caught, her eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed ever so slightly at the contact.  “She’s just a little girl, Rin.  Leave her be.  You already killed her brother and she just lost her Servant, she’s not going to be a threat,” Archer explained to her.
 
 Rin didn’t jerk away from him or demand to be let go.  She frowned and said, “You did not utter a word of protest when I killed my sister or Emiya-kun, but yet Ilya’s death would bother you that much?”
 
 “She’s a little girl Rin.  I don’t like killing children,” Archer answered firmly, hoping Rin wouldn’t know Ilya’s true existence.
 
 Rin snorted, “Not only did I not get a Saber Servant, the Servant I Summoned is a damned soft touch.”
 
 “And you’re too much of a magus,” Archer shot back at her, letting her go, the feel of her skin actually repulsing him.  Had it been any of the other Rins he served under in the countless Grail Wars he’d fought in, it would have taken every ounce of will power he had to keep from kissing her under those circumstances.  Instead he backed away to look at Ilya.
 
 Ilya stood up and gracefully straightened her coat.  She tilted her head up and said, “I think I’m going to head back home now, oini-chan.”
 
 “I’ll go with you, Ilya,” Archer said as he offered his hand to her.
 
 Rin snapped, “Like hell you are!”
 
 “If it goes with anyone, it goes with me as it is my right to have it.”
 
 Archer’s eyes narrowed as his heart picked up.  Fire spiked through his veins and tinted his vision red for a moment as he let the anger over take him.  He automatically traced his beloved Falchions into his hands as he spun around to face the King of Heroes. Gilgamesh stood with his hands in his slacks’ pockets, his golden hair carelessly windswept against his arrogantly handsome features.  His crimson eyes with their oddly silted pupils narrowed possessively on Ilya.
 
 Gilgamesh stated, “Step away mongrels, you two matter nothing to me, just give me the girl and you might get to live in my new kingdom.”
 
 Archer stepped automatically in front of both Ilya and Rin and stared the other Archer Servant down.  “I don’t think so, Gilgamesh.”
 
 “My name is not worthy to come out of your mouth, Faker,” Gilgamesh sneered, “Yes, I know what you can do.  I knew the very moment that drunken Irish bastard told Kotomine about your fight.”
 
 Archer shot back at him while a smirk graced his features, “I can copy and duplicate upon duplicate every treasure in your precious Gate and use it against you.  You only have a finite amount while my body can always create more.  So, let’s go at it, King of Heroes, or are you too afraid to have the shit beaten out of you by some no named Servant?”
 
 Gilgamesh’s eyes narrowed as he sneered, “I can take it by force and leave you alive enough when I take your Master and make her enjoy it.”
 
 “Just like you threatened to please Saber?” Archer retorted with a dark smirk as Gilgamesh snapped his fingers.  The ruby liquid gate shimmered into view as the various weapons started to pull themselves out towards Gilgamesh.  Archer flipped his Magic Circuits on, felt the familiar burn as he began to replicate everything Gilgamesh was bringing out of the gate.
 
 Gilgamesh asked, “What do you know about Saber?”
 
 “I know she knows how to please a man,” Archer said with a snide smirk.
 
 Gilgamesh hissed, “You know nothing about that.”
 
 “I also know she died, devoured by that Shadow that pissed your arrogant ass off so much,” Archer added snidely, some twisted part of him enjoying the look of sadness that crossed Gilgamesh’s handsome features.  The King of Heroes fell quiet as his shoulders trembled. Then he took a deep breath and looked actually behind Archer.
 
 Gilgamesh asked, “Girl, you killed the Shadow’s host, right?”
 
 “Yes, I did,” Rin answered haughtily, “And my Servant’s going to kill you.”
 
 Gilgamesh threw back his head and laughed.  He eyed her and said, “Give me the girl and I’ll let you and your Servant go.  Because you have avenged Saber’s death, I shall let you live.”
 
 “Your generosity is overwhelming,” Rin said dryly.
 
 Archer looked back at Rin and asked, “Do you want me to kill him, Rin?”
 
 “No, I don’t,” Rin said icily, “I want you to stand down and take that wall of swords down with you.”
 
 Archer spat, “You want to give up a little girl?”
 
 “No, I’m letting him take care of a Master because my Servant’s being too soft,” Rin retorted as Archer spun around.  Ilya swallowed and took a step back from Rin and the glowing green of her magus crest.  The familiar black gand formed at Rin’s finger tip.
 
 Ilya spat, “You don’t need to use that stupid curse on me.  It’s not like I have anything left to live for anyway.”
 
 She then stepped past Archer with her head titled high.  Archer hands itched to reach out for her as Gate of Babylon faded from view. Gilgamesh stared at his oncoming conquest as Ilya defiantly tilted her head up towards him.  “Archer, we have someplace else to go,” Rin demanded as she walked away from the Grail and Servant, “I know where the Grail’s going to be Summoned.”
 
 Ilya’s eyes met Archer’s as she whispered, “She’s not your Rin.”
 
 Archer stared into the familiar aquamarine eyes in the face he had loved so much.  Her expression was unrecognizable to him as she waited for him.  He narrowed his eyes and took one last look at Ilya as she proudly walked towards the insane King of Heroes.

[Elf]

Archer was quietly glaring as he and Rin began to walk the familiar temple steps.  Rin turned her head turned her head towards him when he snapped, “What the hell where you doing? You should have let me killed Gilgamesh.”
 
 “You killed his Master, it’s only a matter of time before he fades,” Rin said casually as she looked ahead on the steps.
 
 Archer stared at her and snorted, “You know he is an Archer class Servant with Independent Action right?  He can last days without a Master, Rin and still very much be a threat.”
 
 “But he’ll be weakened by the time you come across him again, Archer,” Rin said stiffly, “I wasn’t going to lose a fight because you can’t keep a hold of your temper.  Besides, what was all that stuff you were saying about Saber anyway?  She didn’t recognize you, so I doubt you two were lovers in your time.”
 
 Archer snorted, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you Rin.”
 
 “Well, it’s a meaningless matter, I was just curious.  But this war is almost won,” Rin said with a tiny, proud tilt of her chin, “Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, True Assassin, Saber, Berserker and their Masters are all dead, just leaving you, Goldie, and myself in this war. Eventually he’ll show up here, so I think we should wait.”
 
 “Whatever you say, Master,” Archer said dryly as he looked around the familiar temple. He closed his eyes as his chest tightened.  In this loop it would have been the first time he had actually won the damned War.  Rin looked so proud and satisfied because of it, but Archer on the other hand felt hollow and dead, even more so than normal.
 
 ******
 Archer was standing quietly by Rin, waiting to win the War together. He was leaning against one of the pillars in the temple as Rin paced back and forth a little bit.  His keen eyes already picked up the golden hair form in black as he dragged a school boy with a shock of blue hair up the steps.  Matou Shinji flailed and wailed as Gilgamesh continued to drag him up the steps with one hand as with the other he held a pulsing bit of bloody meat that sent crimson rivulets down his hand that made Archer’s stomach tighten.
 
 An imperfect vessel for an imperfect Grail, Archer thought dryly as Gilgamesh reached the top steps.  Rin’s eyes widened but she stepped beside Archer as he pushed himself off the pillar.  “Out of the way, mongrels,” Gilgamesh demanded as his eyes focused on Archer.
 
 Archer stared at Ilya’s heart still beating in the Golden Servant’s hand.  Then he looked over at Rin who was glaring at Gilgamesh.  His eyes flickered distastefully as Shinji was screaming and sobbing for help.  His queer blue eyes looked up at Rin and pleaded, “Please, Tohsaka . . . Help me!”
 
 Archer watched as Rin didn’t even acknowledge the other boy’s presence. She simply stared at Gilgamesh with her head tilted high and her aquamarine eyes focused on his.  Gilgamesh chuckled and said, “I think if I would have had you as a Master instead of your father, I would have already gained my perfect Kingdom.”
 
 “So, you were my father’s Servant, no wonder he lost,” Rin said dryly.
 
 Gilgamesh snorted, “Well, it’s better than your nameless Faker.”
 
 “Well, he is loyal, even though he is a soft touch,” Rin replied with a shrug, “But enough pleasantries . . .  Archer, take the heart away from Gilgamesh.  We’re going to Summon the Grail tonight.”
 
 Shinji struggled and squealed more, his eyes focusing on Archer before widening in recognition.  “Please . . . If you’re who I think you are, you’re not going to let him kill me!”
 
 “Emiya Shirou’s dead,” Archer said woodenly as he traced Kansho and Baykura.  He took a stance and stared at Gilgamesh with his chest tight. His eyes focused on the beating piece of meat in his hand.  He traced the stained crimson cuff of the King of Hero’s white shirt, the smell of blood thick in the air.
 
 The bastard was holding Ilya’s heart.
 
 He could have saved her from that painful death.  He could have saved Sakura.  He could have even saved himself.  If he had saved Rin first. He glanced at her as she stood firmly, waiting for him to act.
 
 Gilgamesh snapped his fingers and the Gate of Babylon came into view. More and more swords and other weapons wavered into vision.  Shinji was screaming even more now.  Red rivulets ran down Gilgamesh’s hand as he squeezed the heart in his hand.  Rin was standing firm and watchful.
 
 Her knees were not trembling.  Her aquamarine gaze was unwavering as she watched the scene before her, cold and dead.  She’s not your Rin. 
 
 No, you never where, he thought sadly as he released the mana and the swords in his hands.
 
 Shinji’s misty blue eyes widened as he screamed more.  Gilgamesh blinked before he started to chuckle while Rin was glaring at him. “Kill him.  Then take the container for the Grail,” Rin hissed.
 
 “No,” Archer said quietly with a glare.  “No.”
 
 Gilgamesh chuckled and said, “Interesting, Faker, you prove yourself more fascinating than you originally let on.  However, I’m not going to let your Master interfere with my plans.”
 
 “ARCHER! I Order . . .” The Command Seal started to flare.
 
 Archer closed his eyes and made himself incorporeal as the swords where thrown.  His stomach twisted as he heard the feminine scream and the multiple scrapes of metal upon flesh, blood and stone.  He opened his eyes to see Gilgamesh laughing and forced himself back into physical form.  He turned to see Rin pinned to the same pillar she’d been standing against earlier.
 
 His chest tightened and it felt as if a lead weight had attached to his heart as he stared at her.  Her slim body was riddled with blades, but none of the strikes fatal on its own.  However, it was only a matter of moments before she would die and the world would end.  Gilgamesh kept laughing as Archer looked at him.
 
 “Oh, how history repeats itself, little magus!  An Archer class Servant stands by and does nothing as their Tohsaka Master is killed.  I think your father would have been proud little girl . . .” Gilgamesh snickered, “Perhaps if you would have shown more conviction and had more faith, then you wouldn’t have been betrayed.”
 
 Archer clinched his fists and fought the tears burning his eyes.  He hissed, “Shut up, King of Heroes.”
 
 “Or perhaps you were too much of a Magus for your soft-hearted Servant to bare,” Gilgamesh sneered, “But it matters naught, the results are the same and the Tohsaka line dies with you.  I’d wager your father would have been proud.”
 
 Archer growled, “Go ahead.  Go on and cleanse the world.  There’s nothing of worth anymore.”
 
 And Gilgamesh threw his head back with a laugh, calling Archer pathetic as he started to drag Shinji up the steps again.  Archer ignored the screams before looking at Rin.  She was staring at him as tears flowed own her face, her aquamarine eyes bright and afraid.  It had been the most emotion he’d seen out of her in weeks. He bowed his head and started to head down the steps of the temple.
 
 The world was about to end, but his had already ended days ago. 
 
 ******
 
 The pain was overwhelming, it felt as if someone had lit her whole body on fire
 after driving sharp objects into her body.  She couldn’t breathe and she was pinned against the temple pillar.  Yet she couldn’t believe it.
 
 Or maybe Rin could.
 
 She should have known of Archer’s morals before everything had gone terribly wrong.  She should have confided in her Servant, tried to come up with a better solution, something, anything.  Yet she killed her sister, killed the boy her sister had fell in love with, the same boy she had loved so very long until one Servant in red brought her a cup of tea, and, perhaps worse of all, she lost her Servant.
 
 She tried reaching for him and those infinitely sad grey eyes.  She rasped out his name, “A-Archer?”
 
 She wasn’t aware of the golden haired Servant in black anymore, his last jab just as painful as one of his swords.  She had failed her father, failed her family line and now the Tohsakas were going to die. However, perhaps worse than that was the desolate look in those steel like eyes as they met hers once again.
 
 Her voice cracked as she tried to apologize to him as her vision started to go red.  Sakura, I’m sorry . . . Emiya-kun . . . I didn’t want it to end this way . . . Archer, please, please come back . . . I’m sorry . . . Archer . . . ARCHER . . .
 
 Hot tears poured down her eyes to mingle with the blood that splattered on her face from her myriad of wounds.  She tried to move her hands towards him as those broad shoulders became smaller and smaller as he continued down the steps.  She felt her fingers twitch, which brought on a new set of agony as she reached for him.
 
 Then she realized that the pain was fading and it was rather cold outside, wasn’t it?  Her whole body began to go numb as her vision started to fade even more.  She saw Archer in her mind’s eye though, him carrying her as they flew through the air as she showed him around town.  The tiny arrogant smirk on his face and the way his grey eyes looked at her.  Then how those steel like eyes dimmed the moment she rammed her blade into Shirou’s chest.
 
 Sakura came to mind next with her violet hair and eyes.  Rin desperately wished to know what her sister had been like, to know her and to be with her and to protect her.  Instead she had taken the final step to become a magus, killing all of her emotions the moment she brewed that poison.  She saw how Shirou’s sherry eyes lit up at the sight of her little sister and the twist of jealousy she felt about that.
 
 She wanted to beg their forgiveness, her lips moving silently with the words, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.”
 
 As her vision began to darken even more, she wanted to know what it would have been like to be held as Sakura had been by Shirou.  To touch and kiss someone, to be close to and to love some one.  She briefly wished she could have touched Archer like that at least once before she disappointed him so much.
 
 And that was Tohsaka Rin’s last thought before her vision faded to black and the world ended.
 
 The End.